What Makes Compound Bow Different From Traditional Bows?

Even the first traditional bow is already a significant invention of humanity.

Imagine throwing an arrow without a bow; you can’t probably even penetrate a coconut.

The bow has an excellent mechanical lead of control because as you draw an arrow, it stores a massive amount of energy in the flexed limb that allows you to shoot an arrow in an exponential amount of force compared to only throwing an arrow with your bare hands.

Traditional Bows

This includes recurves and longbows. Traditional bows store energy directly. The more you draw the arrow, the more energy is stored.

In proportion to that, the amount of energy exerted from pulling the arrow is the same energy transferred towards the arrow once you release it.

This means that in traditional bows, pulling the arrow away as far as you can is what matters. This means that your raw effort is what it takes to make a faster shoot.

However, this comes as a disadvantage for people who have weaker arms.

Not only that, even if you are considered “strong,” you’ll still have a hard time using traditional bows.

The explanation behind is simple. Drawing a bow all the way to your ear means you’re already holding the entirety of the bow and arrow which is the draw weight.

If your bow draws around 65lbs, this means you’re holding a total of 65lbs right between your hands! This is hard, especially for beginners.

Compound Bow

The once astonishing design of a traditional bow is further improved with modern innovations that gave birth to compound bows.

In using a compound bow, you won’t need to hold the entirety of the 65-pound draw weight.

Compound bows have cams – wheels on its both ends. Cams have a profile specially designed to provide the so-called “let off” at the end of each draw.

Let off happens after the draw weight has come to its peak; it describes the events involving the cam as it totally rolls over.

“Let off” is the occurrence when the drawn string triggers the cam to turn, resulting the limb to bend.

Once the cam does its part, the limb becomes crooked making you not obliged to support the entire draw weight anymore, hence “let off”.

Typically, the “let off” is amazingly 60 to 80 percent of the draw weight.

This means that enormous percentage is no longer your responsibility to hold and maintain, providing you the luxury of focusing on your aim rather than spending attention and effort in holding back the arrow (as what happens when using traditional bows).

With the “let off”, you can now hold a full draw for a much longer time so you can hold the bow much steadier, giving room for a dramatic increase in accuracy.

Advantages of A Compound Bow

Has A Special Release Mechanism For A Steadier Shot

Compound bow enthusiasts love the special release device that can be utilized in combination with the bow.